Pokémon video games

The first Pokémon games, Pokémon Red and Blue, were released in Indonesia in limited numbers around 2000. The first truly well-known Pokémon game for Indonesia was Pokémon Yellow, which was released in 2001.

Many pirated copies of hack games, as well as official games, are also sold in Indonesia, especially the infamous game ChaosBlack and Quartz, which at first were mistaken by people as official. Pirated copies of official games come in a variety of ways, such as the lack of license or the color difference of game cartridges.

After several months, the broadcast was moved to every Sunday morning at 10:00-10:30 WIB on July 8, 2001. Sometime in 2003, the show was moved once again at 08:30-09:00 WIB.[2] Soon after the episodes around the Orange League season, the show was known to be stopped indefinitely in August 2003.

On February 7, 2010, Indosiar skipped half of Advanced Generation from not-yet-aired episodes of eighth season until the end of the Battle Frontier saga, and started airing the first episode of the Diamond & Pearl series (Pokémon D&P). The anime series had been stopped for unknown reason from July 25, 2010 until November 21, 2010, in which were brought to reschedule to 08:00-08:30 WIB after the retirement, continuing from DP024 to DP025 on November 28, 2010.[3]

The season that contains episodes from thirteenth season called Pokémon D&P Part II, was aired after the first 52 episodes (excluding to Japanese-exclusive episode). Due to this, most of episodes were skipped from DP053 to DP136 on June 12, 2011.[4] This season consist of 52 episodes,[5] which were brought to the episode removal from DP138 to DP141. Thus, DP142 was aired instead after DP137 on June 26, 2011.

Pokémon movie

Movie marathon were aired from Celebi: A Timeless Encounter to Destiny Deoxys, replacing the regular episodes at the time. However, these movies were split up into several parts, only about thirty-minutes to one hour available for one part. This issue was no longer present when most of them were re-running without segmented scenes.

Dub and localization

The Indonesian dub mainly based on the Japanese version; however, the proper names from the English version were used. The most known renamed main characterAsh Ketchum, was given the dub name Ali, while the rest of them are based on their English name.

On Indosiar, the dub name Ali was left while his Japanese name, Satoshi was used instead. Unfortunately, the inconsistency began when the dub were using the mixture between the English and Japanese names for Pokémon and other things in some episodes cases, though this was not the case for the notable main characters; Satoshi, Kasumi, Takeshi, Musashi, Kojiro, Nyasu. However, the main characters that were introduced later such as May, Max, and Dawn were named in their English name instead of Japanese name. Since Advanced Generation series, the Pokémon voices were also dubbed, notably including Ash's Pikachu. These were probably the most controversial for the fans.

After a certain episode from Diamond & Pearl series, the dub began to using the English version as localization (mostly for Pokémon names or characters of the day) and the Japanese script as the main translation, though sometimes there was a minor error occurred. The previous main characters were still retained in Japanese, possibly to avoid confusion for the audience.

Cast and crew

When Pokémon arrived on Indosiar, the dubbing process was worked at its own in-house dubbing studio. After the studio was disbanded around 2009, the progress was moved to the current location, Studio RCS (Reka Citra Suara).

Home video

Several Pokémon episodes and movies were also sold in DVDs and VCDs in some regions and major towns of Indonesia, although most of them are not exactly official or are being pirates. Most of them are dubbed in English or Mandarin and subtitled in Indonesian.

Pokémon manga

Indonesia is one of the few countries that publishes a translation of Pokémon Pocket Monsters by Kosaku Anakubo, licensed by Elex Media Komputindo in 2001. The main character Red was given the same dubbed name for main character in the anime, Ali, while his Clefairy was renamed as Kleferi. The localization mostly following the English version. However, some Pokémon names were also changed into its Indonesian names in this manga, usually adapted from its English name, such as Charizard, which was altered as Karizar.

Pocket Monsters manga releases were stopped on April 21, 2003 when volume 12 was running in publish until March 3, 2010, where Elex published the volume 13. This series was ended by the last volume on April 2010. Since these two latest releases, Clefairy's name was reverted into its Japanese name, Pippi.

Magical Pokémon Journey and Pokémon Get da ze!, were also translated under the name Pokémon PiPiPi Adventure and Pokémon Petualangan Baru, respectively. They were licensed by m&c!, the manga and comic publisher owned by Kompas Gramedia Group. Both of them had their original Japanese titles, even their Japanese script was retained on the side of their covers. There were only 7 volumes for PiPiPi Adventure and 4 volumes for Get da ze!.

There is the complete volumes of The Electric Tale of Pikachu under the name Kisah Pikachu yang Menggetarkan, as well as another version of Magical Pokémon Journey volume 1 under the direct translated title Petualangan Ajaib Pokémon, both were published by Panda Books. These manga are based on Chuang Yi's releases, since they share the same cover theme.

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Cover art for Pokémon Pocket Monsters in Indonesia

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Kisah Pikachu yang Menggetarkan volume 1 cover artwork

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Pokémon Petualangan Baru volume 1 cover artwork

Pokémon Trading Card Game

Before the Pokémon franchise, especially the Trading Card Game that was introduced officially, the Pokémon cards were introduced when they were imported by Sucianto, the founder of Planet Comics, the famous and the oldest Indonesian Comic Store.[7]

Many card sets and theme decks of Pokémon TCG have been sold in the Indonesia's convenience stores and malls starting from the very first TCG set, Base Set, both in English and are uncommon for Japanese versions. Fake cards and booster packs can be found easily with very low prices.

After the popularity began to widespread, several unofficial tournaments are held within the stores' locations in several cities such as Jakarta and Bandung.

Pokémon Tazos

Pokémon Tazos Indonesia version

The quite popular collectible Pokémon Tazos were available, after the popularity of the anime series. These collectible toys can be found in three different snacks, Chiki, Cheetos, and JetZ. They were producted by Indofood Fritolay Makmur, an Indonesian snack food company—joint venture company with PepsiCo. All Pokémon were using English names in these merchandise. However, unlike the American releases, the types on the back were completely removed.

The first releases came with two different Tazos, namely Tazos Spin and Tazos Smash. Tazos Spin has several small incisions around the tip, which can be used to assemble and connect in many ways, while Tazos Smash is the flower-shaped Tazos with several crackable gaps. Not only featured 151 Pokémon species, but five human characters are also included: Ash, Brock, Misty, Joy, and Jenny.

The holographic Tazos called Tazos 3D also available, which are featured the first generation Pokémon with evolutionary stages. After the Johto saga were broadcasted, there were final releases called Pentazo, pentagonal Tazos that identical with Tazos Spin. These Tazos introduced the newly Generation II Pokémon. After several months, some Pentazos can be found outside the snack bags.